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The Hugo Chávez Frías Revolution

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

It’s so difficult to write about the country where I was born while I’m currently living in the U.S.A. This is always hard because it feels as if I’m losing my rights as a Venezuelan citizen. Throughout my life, I have traveled quite a lot, and I have kept my Latin Spaniard spirit within me in spite of many things like the unforgiving results of time and distance. My second trip in the year 2000 to Venezuela was as hectic as it has been every year during the month of December, due to the holidays’ festivities. Yet this time it was different. My cousins and my siblings (including me) debated quite a bit about Mr. Hugo Chávez Frías—the Venezuelan President. There were two teams: one opposing Mr. H. Chávez Frías’ decisions and the other moderately supporting some of his ideas and approaches in the public sector. As you may guess, the debate got rather heated. I, of course, enjoyed it. It reminded me about my childhood when my parents, aunts, and uncles got into huge arguments about politics. You may be thinking that in the U.S.A. people don’t talk about politics because such a subject may be pointless. Well, that’s not the case in Latin America, and a lot less in Venezuela. People love to talk about politics. Venezuelans do get into heated conversations with great fluidity.

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Enigmatic Louisiana

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

Louisiana’s mysticism caught my eyes as if stoned by an invisible, but powerful, drug that made its way through my senses and my veins. At first, like most romantic stories, I didn’t realize my love for Louisiana. I took for granted the amusement that it had provided me. Time kept spending itself with little monotony. All of its components excited me, especially its true green and its enigmatic bayous. The people seemed to me as if they were Portuguese speakers who tried to imitate the English American accent. Even more they appeared to me as if they were borrowed Portuguese Brazilians who came here trying to find a more amicable jungle, this type of amicability was like a spiritual-materialistic mixture. Those were the initial impressions during my first fifteen days trip to Louisiana.

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Venezuela in Different Perspectives

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

In my last visit to Venezuela, I had a foreign sensation as if I hadn’t been there before. It seemed as if I were visiting a total unfamiliar country. People and things looked different. The Venezuelan style appeared to be fighting for a mere survival. Visible citizens tended to battle against an invisible chaos, one confusion after another. We could say that those confusions have been politically, economically and the latest, nature’s course. We call it a natural disaster. The last disaster came upon them like an invisible snap on the face. It rained a lot. Venezuela got in a week one year’s rain. That’s how Venezuela ended the 20th century, a little bit more bewildered than ever before.

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Venezuela & Hugo Chávez Frías

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

Though I have named my article “Venezuela & Hugo Chávez Frías,” this is not really about one person for one country, in this case Venezuela one of the Latin American countries. On the contrary, what makes a country is not just its president, but its people. We talk a lot about democracy in the USA, but do we really know the meaning of it? Most of you may say that yes, you know all about democracy because this is your political foundation, and indeed your belief. Yet I do also have my belief. My belief tells me that things are not just black and white. By the way, the colors allusion is not about people’s skin color. This is just a term referring that we should not look at life with one glass spectrum. Democracy is like a pot luck. All of the contributions are voluntarily. Everybody has a vote. Is this reality? Absolutely the answer is NO. We may talk a lot, write a lot and debate a lot. In the end we may not be heard by our politicians, just like in any communist country. At times, in those communist countries people may be heard a lot more closely than we indeed presume in our so-called perfect system.

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Transparent Election of Governors in Venezuela

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

The “whole” world has been mighty worried about the election year the country of Venezuela is having in 1998. Why is it so? It is so because after four decades and a bit more the Venezuelans have gotten super tired of false promises. We may call those false promises mere LIES.

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Caracas & Monroe

by María L. Trigos S. Gilbert

Caracas is a very crowed city which is full of energy wherever one stands. There are people walking and driving at all corners. All things in the city are bathed in motor fumes, giving a particular smell everywhere. The sun’s light shines in mirrored buildings, starting from East to West. Everyone is always busy: working, studying, or socializing, nothings seems to stop even at the red lights. Caracas is very tropical which means it has two seasons: rainy and dry.

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Deconstructing My Name

by María L. Trigos S. Gilbert

Hi, my name is María L. Trigos S. Gilbert. I was born in Caracas, Venezuela. I am now living in the USA; now let me tell you how I got here. One day, I was in a mission trip, preaching the Gospel, when I met Billy Gilbert, my husband (I call him my “gringo” – a gringo is a North American, colloquial term in Latin America ). At first I thought that he was an Italian for how he looked. But gosh, I was wrong because when he spoke, I found out from accent that he was a North American, and a very nice one.

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